help! a whole column of pixels just died!

So, I don't know why, but a column of pixels on my screen died, or got stuck, or something. Basically, there's a column that goes all the way from top to bottom that can be only white or yellow (depending on what they are supposed to really be - i.e., white for most of the stuff, yellow if they are supposed to be black or yellow or something).

This happened a few days ago. I didn't notice exactly when, but it seems to have happened when I took the laptop out at one point. (As a DTR, it sits on my desk most of the time.) However, there was no rain and it didn't get hit or anything of the sort, so I don't know what could've happened.

It's a hardware problem, since taking a screenshot gives a picture of all the pixels, i.e., no column of white/yellow pixels.

I tried JScreenFix for almost an hour, but it didn't do anything. The other methods for fixing dead pixels I found (massage, tapping) are meant for fixing one pixel, not a whole row of them, so I didn't try those, esp. since they can hurt all the other pixels nearby if you don't do it right. I've never heard of a whole column of them going dead at once, either. Does anybody know what happened or what I can try to fix it? Thanxs!

Malia

 

Malia,
It seems like the problem is not with the physical LCD, but the ribbon cable which connects the LCD to the graphics card.
If you have some time and space, you need to shut your system off and disassemble the lid.
There will most likely be small rubber circles on the corners of the lid, when the lid id open.
You need to remove them with a small flat head screwdriver. Their are screws underneathe them which hold the lid together.
Once you remove these screws, the screen halves should separate a little bit.
Their may be a few plastic snaps which hold the lid pieces together.
Simply run a flathead screwdriver between the halves to release the plastic snaps.
Than you need to proceed to getting the lcd removed.
Please take pictures along the way so that you know how everything was assembled.

When you get to the back of the LCD, you will see a flat cable, about 1-2 inches wide and about 1mm thick.
You will need to remove that from the back of the lcd panel.
Clean both contacts. The male and female ones with a q-tip. (Use a small amount of rubbing alcohol on the q-tip)
Clean the end of the ribbon cable and the female part of teh connector on the back of the LCD.

Than you will want to dry the connectors and reconnect the cable.
Once the cable is connected all of the way, use a piece of tape to secure the cable to the back of the lcd.
Than reassemble the LCD and the lid, and than power up to see if it fixed the problem.
Most likely one of the many cables in the ribbon cable was not physically in contact with the port on the back of the lcd, resulting in the stripe of pixels.

I hope this helps, let us know if it worked or not.

K-TRON

 

Have you tried pushing the screen togheter? On the edge of the screen, not ON the screen but on the frame.. Does it do anything?

 

Not necessarely. I had the same symptom on an Advent 6001 laptop and the only way to fix it was to replace the LCD. Now I have a Dell Precision M70 with the same problem. Cleanning the connection didn't help too. It needs a new screen too.

 

if it's an old laptop, instead of spending a lot of money to repair it, you could remove the old screen and the lid, and use and external screen (19" wide LCD maybe) with it.
You turn your laptop into a desktop (sort of).

Something no one has asked you: Is your laptop out of warranty?

 

^probably not worth it to turn a notebook into a desktop as by the time it's gotten to that state, its specs are probably way outdated.